


Demise of a Tyrant

by Tony1769



Category: Dune - All Media Types, Dune Series - Frank Herbert, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003)
Genre: Gen, God Emperor of Dune, Songfic, coming down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:28:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24174361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tony1769/pseuds/Tony1769
Summary: Even whilst falling to his long-awaited death, The God Emperor Leto II cannot deny the ignorant in his universe their hatred towards him.Knowing he’s taking his last breaths however, he struggles to maintain composure in his mind, which obrutes him with torturous thoughts.
Relationships: Ghanima Atreides/Leto Atreides II, Leto Atreides II & Moneo Atreides, Leto Atreides II/Hwi Noree
Kudos: 5





	Demise of a Tyrant

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language so judge me (especially my punctuation [works differently in German]) as hard as you can. I want to improve.
> 
> The song is “Coming Down” from the all but embarrassingly named band Five Finger Death Punch:  
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeqEAQFWIN4&list=PLFx3PtIqRX_KvLUEdX6V-LjR7NSFbNZXF&index=6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeqEAQFWIN4&list=PLFx3PtIqRX_KvLUEdX6V-LjR7NSFbNZXF&index=6)  
> For narrative reasons not all lyrics are included or in exact order. I am confident your mind can correct that when listening.

_It's caving in around me  
_ _What I thought was solid ground  
  
_

Leto II’s heart beats a calm rhythm into his chest as the lasgun beams appear out of nowhere and sever the cables once meant to suspend the bridge’s roadbed.

His Pulse does not quicken until he realizes the gravity of this situation. He is not scared for his life. The centuries have proven its tenacity and besides, he had never feared the possibility of his death – not as long as the Golden Path continues on.

_I tried to look the other way  
_ _But I couldn't turn around  
  
_

This sense of contentment however abruptly abates when the road beneath his Royal Cart is split in two and he felt first a lurching, which then quickly transitioned into a skewing motion.

A swift move of Leto’s head and upper body reveals Hwi Noree desperately clinging on to the folding seat. The sight of his lover, the only one that close to him aside from this sister Ghanima, startles him. It is not only his live that’s in danger – not the cortege or even the loyal Moneo but – Hwi!

Before his comparatively small hands manage to grasp her, his cart gets caught up in some of the protruding steel girders at the end of the platform. The impact of this sudden halt throws Hwi off balance, she slides down the length of the cart past Leto.

In a last desperate effort, she manages to cling onto the edge of the cart whilst her lower body already dangles over the bridge’s edge.

Regarding him steadfastly she manages to utter a few words of goodbye/farewell before her hands lose hold and she falls off the bridge platform.

A grief-stricken moan echoes from within the ginormous worm body.

A lose cable comes whipping down onto the broken roadbed and seizes the God Emperor’s attention for an instant.

Leto was now engulfed in commotion. Amidst the cortage’s screaming and weeping he could barely pick out and yet clearly understood Hwi’s last words to him: “I shall go on ahead, Love.”

_Step away from the ledge  
I'm coming down  
  
_

For a moment an instinct urges him to activate his cart’s suspensors. But it is too late now. He remains motionless – his thoughts occupied with his alas no longer bride-to-be Hwi Noree, his reflexes restrained by the knowledge of necessity, that the Golden Path provides.

Before Leto gets a chance to snap back from the former or re-evaluate the latter, his cart’s suspensor bubbles one by one go up in lasgun fire. Golden smoke covers his field of view for an instant.

A blink of an eye later the cart had tipped for just a few degrees too much and flung the massive worm body from the platform. The mass of his physique sending Leto rapidly hurling down the canyon abyss.

_It's okay for you to hate me  
_ _For all the things I've done_

 _I've made a few mistakes  
_ _But I'm not the only one  
  
_

A few seconds after the initial moment Leto had rationalized his fall to an extent, which allowed him a pursue a somewhat linear train of thoughts. Throughout all the millennia the Litany Against Fear had never forsaken him and it appeared that it would now less than ever.

‘So Siona has finally managed to fulfil her mission’ Leto thinks to himself adding a bitter snort, that no one will ever hear.

Despite her every effort to undermine if not possibly destroy his rule over the universe, he had never brought himself to view her with any resentment. Even in this instant, falling to his death, a death she and her naïve rebellion caused, he could not claim bring himself to blame her.

She was after all only a product of her surroundings, born and raised during a tyrannical reign, his reign.

‘How could she not hate me?’ Leto resigned.

Yet still some of his inner voices erupted in violent protest.

‘This child does not understand anything!’ an elderly woman that lived during Butler’s Jihad hissed.

A former government agent remarks ‘She’s incapable of comprehending. It goes above her natural sphere.’

‘She holds no right to judge a superior being!’ exclaimed a conqueror from the days of old earth.

And ‘Serves you right, old worm’ taunted another.

‘Silence!’ Leto commanded.

He would not pass his final moments bothered by their petty arguing.

He had thoughts of his own.

_I could never be  
_ _What you want me to_

 _You pulled me under  
_ _To save yourself  
  
_

Hwi had died by now. Leto’s hearing is good, he had heard the brutal smack of her body thudding into the river below. No human could have survived this. Could he…

‘No’ he cautions himself. It is not the time for delusions. Should the impact of the fall not kill him, the deluge of water surely would.

Leto tries to compose himself and reminisce about his live, as most do in dying. This unfulfilled life he has lived.

‘My grandmother, my father and even Ghani – I’ve hurt all of them by accepting this burden. I have hurt them and yet I have derived no satisfaction from it but in knowing I did my part. A tedious part, a sacrifice for humanity, nothing more.

Yes, I have been little more but a sacrifice. A living sacrifice for 3509 years and at last I meet my end, having caused only suffering to those that surround me.’

Leto feels an emerging wave of woe clouding his mind. As quickly as it arose, it is blown aside by a harsh wind of reprobation. Leto knew this wind, over the last 35 centuries from time to time it had haunted him.

‘What I’ve given will never be appreciated. Me, a creature born into and condemned to suffer from humanity’s inveterate fallibility, will never know the feeling of true appreciation. It is true, billions across the universe worship me. But that is not to understand or value my deeds. It is my human nature, which makes it a sacrifice not a mere gift from an almighty hand – all I’ve given to this universe comes from within myself and predominantly caused me but pain and agony.

It is that, more than the grandeur of any deed, that adds a greater value to my doing.

The position I hold came not claimed by me for the lust of power. It was their own near-sighted faults and foolish actions, that necessitated it!

Where it not for humanity’s inherent tendency to drift towards self-destruction, I would nave have been compelled to sacrifice my life.

Sacrifice in spite of knowing it will old no reward but eternal infamy.

They want an infallible leader who also acts like their loyal servant – a perfect God who serves to their every whim whilst fulfilling the functions they shy away from!

They yearn for a leader figure to detest and cherish simultaneously!

Hah, what I have given them! They will think carefully whom they allow to shepherd them hereafter!’

_You will never see  
_ _What's inside of me_

 _I pulled you under  
_ _Just to save myself  
  
_

A yell from afar distracts his attention. “Leto! Siaynoq! I believe!”

No millisecond later the God Emperor recognizes the voice. It had echoed though the halls of his citadel for decades ‘Moneo!’

Leto can feel the air rapidly blowing by and can sense the humidity emitted by the approaching waters. His giant body being twisted uncontrollably by air resistance, he is not able to catch a last glimpse at

‘Poor Moneo’ Leto thinks as he hears the impact of a human body onto a boulder approximately a few hundred meters below ‘Must you too at last make the ultimate sacrifice for my ambitions?’

Leto is gripped by a feeling of guilt, despite the fact that Moneo had chosen his fate himself after he had tested him nearly a century ago ‘How could he not have after the things I’ve shown him?!’

‘No Moneo, you had no choice. I took you say in this.’

‘Poor Moneo’ he again muses ‘Will you finally find your deserved repose?’

A sigh escapes Leto’s chest.

For all the comfort the majordomo had afforded him, even Moneo could never fully comprehend the full extend and depth of his lord’s motives and feelings. After the death of his beloved sister Ghani, none among his dozens of companions throughout the millennia ever could.

A feeling of sorrow over this fact still lingers on in a corner of Leto’s mind even as he dedicates a last thankful thought to his late majordomo.

“Rest peacefully, old comrade” he mutters to himself ‘enjoy your eternal rest. I shall soon follow.’

_Was there ever any question  
_ _On how much I could take?_

 _You kept feeding me your bullshit  
_ _Hoping I would break_

_Is there anybody out there?_

_Is there anyone who cares?_

_Is there anybody listening?_

_Will they hear my final prayers?  
  
_

In the immediate proximity of water, a sudden anger at the perpetrators and enablers of his expecting fate overcomes Leto, whose body by now is shaking with wormsigns.

His thoughts lapse into irate accusations.

‘Bene Gesserit Sisters, Ixian Tech Criminals, Tleilaxu Masters, Guild Navigators, Great Houses – all of them but a thorn in my side!

Yet these ignorant imbeciles have thrown more than enough obstacles my way to warrant their destruction. Only with the uttermost benevolence have I permitted these obstructers of my Golden Path to plod on…

This is how they thank me – nothing but contempt and ignorance to the bitter end.

They do not understand! They do not care a single iota!’

The next instant, recollecting himself he silently admits ‘I am afraid of the pain.’

‘But I cannot pray. Prayer is for the ones who don’t want to take responsibility and act on their own.

I did act. I did my part in creating a future for humanity.

As long as the Golden Path goes on  
it has not been forlorn.’

_It's caving in around me_

_It's tearing me apart_

_It's all coming down around me_

_Does anyone, anyone care at all?  
  
_

The next second Leto’s body reached the water level and with it, he plunges into a drenched sea of agony. Burst after burst of unabated anguish swept over him.

Too startled to utter a shout of pain he was relentlessly carried off downstream.

Leto feels the fibres inside himself rupturing, mauling his insides. When he manages to open his eyes for a brief instant, he can see his body parts malting apart all around him.

Hundreds of screams echo within him as he feels the individual sandtrout ripping themselves out of his flesh.

In a moment overtaken by instinct he gathers a last impression of his condition.

Never has he felt so alone.

_I will never be  
_ _What you want me to_

_You pull me under_

_I pull you under_  
  


A clearness greater than perhaps in all his centuries of life accompanies Leto’s dying moments.

As he speaks to Siona and Duncan, imparts a few fading words of wisdom, he thinks to himself of his life, of his sacrifice and what he did. What he suffered, lived and dies for.

‘I have given you my reign. I have given you a tyrant and a predator. And I have given you the Golden Path.’

Gradually he senses his body decomposing. His pain fades, his surroundings grow faint.

‘I will not be forgotten.’

‘Remember what I did! Remember me! I will be innocent again.’


End file.
